The personal liberty and fundamental right of movement guaranteed by the Constitution cannot be curtailed at the behest of BOB when the conditions precedent for making such request for opening an LOC, did not exist in this case.

JUDGMENT

Shampa Sarkar, J. - The petitioner who was a Director of Visa Power Limited, has challenged the request for issuance of a Look Out Circular (in short LOC) made by the respondent No.2.The petitioner has prayed for quashing of the request originated by the Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer, Bank of Baroda, (in short BOB). Visa Power Limited (hereinafter referred to as the said company) is currently in liquidation in terms of the order dated October 11, 2018 passed by the National Company Law Tribunal ( in short NCLT), Kolkata Bench.

2. When the petitioner was a director of the said company, the said company availed of credit facilities from a consortium of several banks. One such bank was the respondent No.2. A term loan was sanctioned by the said consortium sometime in 2010. The lead bank was the Punjab National Bank (in short PNB). Such loan was for the purpose of setting up a thermal power project in Raigarh.

3. The project viability and the financial closure were based on the captive coal block allocation made in favour of the said company by the Government of India. According to the petitioner, due to the en-mass cancellation of coal block allocations by the Hon'ble Supreme Court by an order dated September 24, 2014, the said company could not commence operations and its account was declared as a Non-Performing Asset (NPA) by the lenders on March 31, 2016.

4. The Bank of Maharashtra filed an application under Section 7 of the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code, 2016 (in short 'IBC') before the NCLT, Kolkata. By an order dated December 22, 2017, the application under Section 7 of the IBC was admitted and Corporate Insolvency Resolution Process (CIRP) was initiated. On October 11, 2018, the NCLT passed the order of liquidation. A liquidator was appointed and a direction to issue a public announcement in terms of Regulation 12 of the IBBI (Liquidation Process) Regulations, 2016 was issued.

5. The liquidator was directed to proceed with the process of liquidation in the manner laid down in Chapter - 3 of the IBC. During the pendency of the proceedings before the NCLT Kolkata, one of the erstwhile directors of the company was refused passage by the officials at Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International Airport, Mumbai. The said director was stopped at the immigration. On query, an immigration official intimated the said director that LOC had been issued against him and other directors of the company which was in liquidation, at the request of the respondent Nos. 2 and 3. The petitioner called upon the respondent No.1, i.e., Bureau of Immigration to recall, revoke and withdraw the LOC on various grounds.

6. On April 5, 2022, the respondent No.2 issued a letter informing the learned Advocate for the petitioner, that the request for LOC was originated by the competent authority of BOB, in reference to the NPA of the said company in liquidation. The bank stated that the respondent No.2 had the authority to make such a request before the competent authority. As the procedure relating to such request and the contents of such request were confidential in nature, the Bank did not disclose further details.

7. PNB, as the lead bank of the consortium of lenders had made a similar request for issuance of LOC. The LOC was issued. The LOC was challenged by the petitioner and some of the directors in WPA 10241(W) of 2020. Similarly, other directors also filed writ petitions with identical challenges.

8. All the writ petitions were heard analogously by a co-ordinate Bench of this Court. The LOC dated February 29, 2020 issued in respect of the petitioner and others by the immigration authorities at the request of PNB had been quashed by a judgement and order dated December 24, 2021 of the Calcutta High Court.

9. Apprehensive that a similar fate may befall the petitioner and he may be stopped just like the other directors at the immigration during his foreign travels, this writ petition has been filed, inter alia, challenging the request